I wanted the convenience of WiFi at every machine, but I quickly gave up on that. It was just too much hassle. A wired network connection works every time. I hate fishing Cat5 cable to each machine when I already have a perfectly good WiFi router in the shop, but it's the path of least resistance. My WiFi router is in the basement shop and it has ports that I can use for wired network connections, so it takes the place of the switch/hub that Jack recommended. Dropping an ethernet cable from the basement rafters down to each machine is a PIA, but I only need to do it once, and it's easier than trying to get WiFi working on a LinuxCNC machine, and long term, it's WAY easier than needing to do the WiFi job again every time I upgrade LinuxCNC (Ubuntu to Debian the last time). I go with common generic PC hardware known to work well with LinuxCNC and upgrades are easy. I copy the LinuxCNC folder and that's usually all I need to copy over for a new installation. For major LinuxCNC upgrades, I need to reconfigure the machine using the configuration wizard, but I have screen shots of the various pages of the configuration saved in my backed up LinuxCNC directory that makes reconfigurations fairly painless. I try to avoid mucking around in HAL and INI files, but as I start to make more complex machines, that'll probably be inevitable.
Now that I finally gave up on WiFi for my LinuxCNC machines, it'll finally become as plug-n-play reliable as a wired network connection. I found a flat network cable that's easier to get into an electrical panel. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F3ID2NQ I have two LinuxCNC machines in my shop currently, but I'm finally on a CNC conversion and machine building roll. I should have five machines by the end of the summer. I don't want to consider the hassle of trying to keep wireless networking running on them all, through various upgrades. Even though I standardized on PC hardware as much as possible, it'd be too much trouble. If you have a strong preference for WiFi for some reason, consider getting a WiFi internet adapter and taking the WiFi job away from Linux. I bought a Netgear WNCE2001. It plugs into an AC wall outlet and a Cat5 cable plugs into your machine. As far as Linux knows, it has a wired internet connection. The adapter is easily configured via WiFi when it's installed to set the WiFi password for your network. It will then use WiFi to make a wired network connection to your machine. I used it for an old HP color laser printer that isn't WiFi enabled, because it was easier than getting Cat5 into my office. I may use an internet adapter for the LinuxCNC laser that I'll be building in an addition off my basement shop, where it'll be easier to vent the laser smoke outside, but more difficult to run Cat5. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007CO5DZ4 I tried a couple of versions of the power line networking modules, but they were problematic. I could get them to work, but I had a hard time keeping them working. They don't work if the transmitter and receiver are on different 120V legs from the breaker box, and even though it's a 50% probability, that happened 100% of the time and I always had to use outlets that were inconvenient to get on the same 120V leg. After that, I'd still need to cycle power to them every few weeks to reestablish communications. Ain't nobody got time for that. Gene - Consider getting some Ethernet cable that's direct burial rated for underground use and burying it a few inches for the run to your shop. It'll not only be resistant to sun fading and high winds, but also nearby lightning strikes. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GYGQ31E http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001B6DM52 On 04/23/2015 11:55 AM, Jack Coats wrote: > I know wireless is convenient, but if you can, consider running hard wired > connection to your machine(s). If you have multiple machines, run one hard > wire run to the shop, and put a wired hub (aka switch - yes there is a > technical difference, but that distinction is unimportant here) in the shop > to allow connecting more than one device. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BPM Camp - Free Virtual Workshop May 6th at 10am PDT/1PM EDT Develop your own process in accordance with the BPMN 2 standard Learn Process modeling best practices with Bonita BPM through live exercises http://www.bonitasoft.com/be-part-of-it/events/bpm-camp-virtual- event?utm_ source=Sourceforge_BPM_Camp_5_6_15&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=VA_SF _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
